What C&C theme could possibly top Hell March? Why, only the first music you hear when you play the original Command & Conquer, the music that defined the game and set the standard subsequent entries in the series strove to match. Ladies and gentlemen, three words: "Act on Instinct".

Stomp was actually first heard in Tiberian Sun but was also included in Renegade for its penultimate level then the song shows up again in the teaser for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for a badass sequence of GDI forces being mobilized.

Valves. The first track you hear in the game (assuming you weren't playing as Nod scum), which like Act on Instinct before it set the tone for the next entry in the Tiberium sage - dark, futuristic, and apocalyptic.

Dusk Hour single handedly the creepiest song in the entirety of the Command and Conquer soundtrack (Red Alert included).

The only other song that can contest that is the aptly-named Gloom, at least in its first half of the song.

What Lurks is another contender for this spot. Tiberian Sun just seems to have a creepy as hell soundtrack in general.

One more possible contender: Approach. The first half of the track gives a similar creepy apocalyptic vibe (which was re-used in one trailer for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars to show how things went From Bad to Worse between the Second and Third Tiberium War), while its second half encapsulates humanity's grim determination to prevail despite the widespread Tiberium contamination.

Nod Crush is really popular as a nod theme, it also gained a remix for the Renegade mod Reborn.

Link-Up, typically playing in the last mission for Tiberian Sun Firestorm (either side), this piece doubles as a Moment of Awesome, both for the atmosphere of the moment and for making a piece of music around the old modem dial-up noises that we're all familiar with. Because Dystopian Sci-Fi Is Techno.

And of course, Frank's favorite track from the game, Mad Rap, is such with good reason.

And then there's this rarely-heard track, "Initiate," which was intended to be used in Firestorm. Its absence is conspicuous, considering its absolutely awesome segue from ominous techno to rockin' metal.

The cut Fight, Win, Prevail! remix was supposedly intended to play when fighting against Mendoza, and emphasizes how insane he really is.

"Stomp" returns from Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun once again for the penultimate level, in which you level an entire Nod base in Cairo with nothing but a Mammoth tank, your trusty C4 and maybe an MLRS and a Humvee too before leaving an Ion Cannon beacon at the Temple of Nod's front door.

Hell, all of the C&C3 stuff is pretty good. Might not be Frank, but it's still good stuff. There's a great sense of urgency and panic in the combat themes (Deadly Force, Renegade Attack, Apocalypse) that suits the sudden arrival of the seemingly unstoppable Scrin, GDI's all-out assaults, or NOD's multi-pronged Mind Screw-based offensives, and an apocalyptic ambience in pieces like Gathering Intel.

The victory and defeat themes. "Blue Glory" is a good contender with "Victory" for how much it makes your heart leap from accomplishment. Meanwhile "Guilty Pleasure" cements the fury that the Brotherhood of Nod or the Scrin lives upon. "Mourning Hour", instead gives you a sense of lost hope, even if you're playing as the bad guys.

If there is one redeeming feature of the seemingly ruined forever C&C4, it has to be this: To The Death.

Or Prophet's Ascension played in the final cutscene of the game. The whole soundtrack reflects the games relation to the previous incarnations of the Tiberium series: has nothing to do with it. Doesn't mean it's bad though.

Then there's "We Rise," which apparently got its start as a track for the cancelled game Tiberium.

The Fan Remake of Renegade (Renegade X) is worth mentioning too. Not only does it bring in remakes of old favorites (Act On Instinct, No Mercy, and of course, Stomp, among others), it also has its own unique, and rather awesome, tunes, such as Valiant and Blinded.

Red Alert Series

Hell March

Hell March from Command & Conquer: Red Alert. The entire Soviet Red Army marching over the German border to crush the Allies into dust underneath massive tanks? BRING IT ON! A number of fans actually prefer the original Hell March to its sequel counterparts.

Grinder has an interesting callback - one of the voice samples comes from a cutscene in Red Alert (the one where Einstein is chrono'd away seconds before his execution).

In Deep, the song that was played when installing both RA2 and Yuri's Revenge.

Brain Freeze, which borders on Nightmare Fuel. Your feeling of helplessness is your best friend, savage!

Apocalypse Rising, a mod for Renegade that brings in Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge content, has a pretty awesome theme that combines Hell March 2 (at the pace of the original Hell March) with Destroy,

Deciever. The soundtrack lives up to its name by having a Mood Whiplash feeling going from a fast paced track, to a relaxing tune then back to action again.

Red Alert 3 (Includes Uprising)

Also from Red Alert 3, the Allies combat music (Shock and Awe) and the music it segues into when you're winning the fight ("How the West Was Won") are particularly awesome, and one of the few times dynamic combat music has sounded good.

Also their Uprisingcombat theme, which goes completely over the top into awesome territory.

Red Alert 3's Grinder 2. Just pure awesome. Heck, you could practically see the Apocalypse Tanks, Tesla Troopers and Kirov Airships getting ready to pound the utter crap out of something when you listen to this.

The track on this trailer features George Takei singing All Your Base. That's right: It features GEORGE TAKEI singing ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.

While very, very different from the usual C&C offerings, Generals is full of musical badassery. If you can listen to the GLA Anthem without an immediate urge to start blowing shit up, there is something very wrong with you.

Something of an odd-one-out, the ninth Chinese track is downright spooky, and a complete case of Soundtrack Dissonance compared to the rest of the music. It's like it came from an entirely different game.

The Seventh GLA track has a dark and aggressive melody that is punctuated by rapid drumming; a flute solo that starts off mournful but gradually turns ecstatic; and Ominous Arab Chanting as it reaches crescendo. Fittingly, its debut is the third mission where the GLA starts a riot that consumes entire city.

Dune series

Before Command and Conquer, there was Dune II, which had context-sensitive midi music that matched the flow of the game. The battle music in particular is very well suited to get the Adrenaline (Rush) flowing. Klepacki reused many of the same melodies in Dune 2000, giving us some epic tracks such as Fight for power and Harkonnen battle.

Every single track in Dune Emperor. The Atreides tracks have this valiant hero feel while still being badass, and were made by Frank Klepaki, who made 90% of all the Command and Conquer music. The Ordos music is creepy and mysterious, and was made by Jarrid Mendelson who made about a third of the Tiberian sun music, while the Harkonnen music by David Arkenstone goes towards a guitar-heavy rock sound that is surprisingly remiscient of the Harkonnen music in the 1984 Dune movie.

Cross Series remix

Our dear Mr. Klepacki also worked on Universe at War: Earth Assault and left several presents for us Command and Conquer vets (and he even provides a free download):

Really, the soundtrack as a whole has a very Command & Conquer vibe to it.

Regarding that last one, Frank still couldn't resist reusing it once more on one of his solo albums. The result is the incredibly epic Machines Collide - basically, "Big Foot" with a One-Woman Wail. You'll even notice the beep-like noise in the song sounds like the same dial-up noises from "Link Up" as well.

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